1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a combination and keyed bag lock with a pop-up hood, and in particular to a bag lock having a combination housed within the hood of the lock.
2. Description of the Related Art
Locks are common in many industries. One industry in particular is banking, wherein bag locks are provided to prevent unauthorized opening of the flexible bank bags. Some examples of devices for locking bank bags, or simply bags, having slide fasteners are shown in the following patents.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,759,073 to Rifkin is titled Flexible Walled Security Container. It illustrates a flexible walled security container having an opening provided with slide fastener means along the edges of the opening and locking means carried by the container in position to releasably retain the slider of the slide fastener means in position closing the container.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,019,353 to Christopher is titled Keeper Lock for a Slide Fastener. This patent shows a key-operated keeper lock for a slide fastener that has an outer tubular barrel, an anvil projecting radially from the barrel and adapted for supporting a fastener lacing element thereon, a tubular handle rotatable in the barrel, means securing the handle against substantial axial movement relative to the barrel, a keeper arm fixed to and projecting radially from the handle for rotation therewith and adapted to overlie the anvil and a fastener lacing element thereon for retaining the lacing element between the keeper arm and the anvil to prevent operation of the fastener, a lock cylinder rotatable in the handle, tumbler means movable between the lock cylinder and the handle for alternately preventing and enabling rotation of the lock cylinder relative to the handle, a lock bolt mounted in the handle and movable when the keeper arm overlies the anvil between a position locking the handle to the barrel and an unlocking position freeing the barrel for rotation, and means coupling the lock cylinder and the lock bolt for moving the bolt between its said positions in response to rotation of the lock cylinder, said handle and said keeper arm being adapted upon movement of the lock bolt to its unlocking position to rotate between the position of the keeper arm overlying the anvil and an out-of-the-way position wherein the lacing element is accessible for manipulation, while each remains substantially in a constant axial disposition relative to the barrel.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,677,833 to Scherbing, et al. is titled Bag Lock. This patent shows a key-operated locking device using an axially fixed rotating arm, employing the anvil and rotating keeper arm concept with the anvil extending laterally from the housing. The keeper arm, with lock cylinder assembly, is firmly retained within the housing through the use of a retaining pin, and is rotatable within the lock housing to move from the lock-closed to lock-opened positions in order to confine or release the slide of a slide fastener on a zipper-type closing fabric bag, utilizing a lower detent pin having a stepped cylinder shape located axially in the tubular bore in the lock housing, which is resiliently biased against the distal end of the lock cylinder assembly, with the smaller diameter end projecting along the axis into the axial keyway just past the lowermost tumbler of the lock cylinder assembly. This pin serves to defeat attempts at unauthorized access by lock picking. On the upper surface of the lock housing is located the upper spring-loaded detent pin which, under the vertical pressure of a helical compression spring, is pushed into a cooperating notch on the lower surface of the keeper arm acting to secure the keeper arm in the lock-closed position and prelude inadvertent opening.
While each of these patents show products that may work well for their intended purposes, each design can nevertheless be improved upon.
For example, none of these patents shows a product with dual methods of opening a pop-up bag lock integrated into the design.
Further, none show a product utilizing a combination lock integrated into a bag lock.
Still further, none show a product incorporating a combination lock into the hood of the lock.
Still further yet, none show the method of opening a bank bag or slider bag using a combination lock.
Thus there exists a need for a combination and keyed bag lock with a pop-up hood that solves these and other problems.